retpog55 wrote:Mr.S wrote:dren wrote:The major benefit of running with the new tires will be observing how they perform between the compounds. Also observing how long they last on different fuel levels compared to last year's tires. Also finding a sweetspot for set-up.
Sweet-spot is useless as the cars are massively different. New suspension,Nose,Sidepods,new Wheelbase,New packaging.
Yea running the tyres would help. You get an idea about peak performance,difference between compounds,degradation & most of all some useful runnings for the drivers. Why waste days??? It's also like a good practise session for the drivers.
This is mainly what i was referring to, the advantage of being able to measure the difference in fuel loads etc with the new tyres and comparing it to the older tyre; thus using the data to anticipate tyre behaviour to help setup the W03. If only little changes can be made however between the tests due to time etc, then like you say the running for the drivers alone will be more than beneficial. Thanks for the welcome, hoping schumy can get a few wins or podiums at least this year.
Slightly off topic i know but just out of interest, where can we be expecting the w02 to fit in lap time wise with the newer models at first testing? slower? Faster!? Similar pace? Obviously nobody will be showing their true hand early doors but i'm just wondering what kind of overall speed effect we can expect the new regs to have on the cars over last years models.
W03 is a completely different machine. New packaging,turning vanes,sidepods,new exhausts,nose,new front wing & maybe more. It is atleast 70% CLEAN SLATE. It will be pretty useless finding a sweet spot in W02 with W03.
And they cant,different tracks,different weather all contribute. I dont believe 3-4 days of running an old can in anyway help you finding the sweet spot of a NEW CAR. Different beast all together. I am only worried about reliability issues taking a while to sort out & others getting closer to a sweet spot than Mercedes for obvious more 50 % more running with the car.
The speeds will be slower possibly. The EBD ban will make teams loose about 1-1.5 seconds but I think in general apart from the Super Softs all tyres will have more Grip too. I expect furthur developed cars with the regulations more or less at a stand-still. So maybe they will find most of the downforce lost. Who knows??? It will be very difficult to match last year's lap-times ignoring any changes in tyres.